Fabric having thickened mock seams.



R. W. SCOTT.

FABRIC HAVING THIGKENED MDCK SEAMS.

APPLICATION FILED AUGJ. I916.

1 ,267, 1 27. Patented May 21, 1918.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT W. SCOTT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO SCOTT & WILLIAMS, INCORPORATED, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

FABRIC HAVING THICKENED MOCK SEAMS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 21, 1918.

Application filed August 1, 1916. Serial No. 112,593.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT W. Soon, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fabrics Having Thickened Mock Seams, of which the following is a Specification.

This invention relates to the manufacture of thickened Wale structures in knit fabrics.

Objects of the invention are to provide for hoisery, gloves or other knit articles or fabrics an element of ornament or use consist ing of isolated, raised or thickened wales which lend themselves well to the formation of clock efl'ects and mock-seams in hoisery and underwear, ridges on the backs of gloves, and the like; and to provide for the manufacture of fabrics having such thickened wales upon the usual instruments, without interfering with the steps employed for making ordinary fabrics. Further objects are to provide a structure of this nature adapted for machine-knit fabrics and capable of being begun and ended at any desired parts of the knit article without interference with the making of the article or the operation of the machine, and to provide a knit structure for this purpose which shall be relatively opaque and dense and which does not weaken the fabric to which it is applied, as well as a method of making said structure. Heretofore twisted or tucked stitches have been employed for some of the uses to which my new fabric is adapted but such structures necessarily contain fewer stitches or stitches under more strain than the body of the fabric, and for these reasons are weaker under longitudinal stress than the remainder of the fabric. Such structures are little or no thicker than the fabric to which they are applied, and are nearly as transparent as the body fabric, so that a thick or opaque mark in a transparent fabric does not result from their employment.

For the above and other purposes my present invention comprises a mode of interknittin an additional or auxiliary yarn in selecte needle wales of the fabric, whereby to increase the number of loops in and increase the strength, opacity and thickness of the selected wales, as well as the new articles of manufacture resulting from practics of my said method.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a diagram showing the back or rear face of a fabric with a single thickened Wale;

Fi 2 is a similar view of a fabric having a wi or raised or thickened part;

Fig, 3 is a similar view illustrating one form of an interrupted or intermitted thickened Wale or ridge;

Figs. 4 and 5 are similar views illustrating other forms of intermitted structure;

Fig. 6 is a diagram development of the relative movements of yarn-guides and knitting needles illustrating one mode of practising the new method;

Fig. 7 is a diagram in plan illustrating one method of laying the auxiliary or additional yarn in relation to the needles and the body or main yarn; and

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view of a stocking illustrating an application of the new structure.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, thefabric may comprise a base or body B knit of a bodyyarn is in any usual manner, in which fabric the needle-wales a are normal wales having a loop in each successive course 1, 3, 5, etc., extending around or across the full width of the fabric. In a wale or wales 6 selected for thickenin an additional thickening yarn t is inter mit with a loop of yarn is in that wale in each successive course, the loops of the yarn t constituting in that Wale or those wales I) only an interleaved course 2, l, 6, etc, the loops of these additional courses in turn being knit through by the next body course 3, 5, 7, etc.

The additional yarn t does not extend across the width of the fabric but is floated behind the wale or wales b from course to course in floats y, Fig. 1, or y, Fig. 2. Where two or more wales b are ad acent, as shown in Fig. 2, loops in the same course of yarn t are connected by sinker wales y of said yarn t, and the floats 3 are longer and lie at a greater angle to the horizontal,

The special structure in the wales b may not be continuous, but may, as shown in Fig. 3, be intermitted or interrupted, as there shown, the fabric having in the wales b at course 15 normal loops of the yarn is only, the yarn t being floated free of the body fabric y from the last extra or additional course 14 in said wales of the yarn t to the next extra or additional course 17 of the yarn t. In some cases, as illustrated in Fig. 4, where the additional yarn t is not interknit in one or more courses 15, 16, the said yarn may be bound in behind one or more of the courses in which it is not interknit as illustrated at c a in the course 16, the yarn t assing behind the wales b in a float 3/, and bein interknit with the normal loops of yarn of course 16 at course 17.

In some cases, as illustrated in Fig. 5, knitting of the additional yarn t in extra or interleaved courses 21, 24, 26, etc., may be interrupted or intermitted at one or more courses 22 of the body-yarn k, the yarn t floating at over the intervening normal course of the body fabric, and being bound in previous to knitting the courses 24, 26, etc., by accompanying the loops of that course, shown as 23, at which it is rentered, the Wales I) here showing double yarn loops (l, in which both the body-yarn k and the additional yarn t are drawn through the previous course loops of the body-yarn is.

The wales b, b may or may not be adjacent as shown, and in some cases I may separate them by one or more normal wales a (not shown) floating the yarn it behind these normal wales.

The structures illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 show on the surface of the fabric a puckered or serrated appearance closely imitating certain forms of sewed stitches.

In each case the longitudinal mark or thickened ridge is adapted to be carried through a section or area of fabric reinforced by an additional yarn s in the usual manner, as shown in Figs. 1, 4 and 8. The additional yarn 25 being interleaved in its own courses, the stitches containing yarns k and s are not called upon also to contain yarn t, except in courses adjacent to courses of the yarn t in the form of the fabric shown in Fig. 5.

I recommend forming the fabrics, of which the several species shown are illustrations only, in the followin manner:

Referring now to ig. 7 the circle n indicates a series of needles adapted to be rotated relativel with respect to a yarn-guide In for the Ody-yarn and a yarn guide it" for the additional or thickening yarn. Either the circle of needles or the am guides may be the movable element. T e usual knitting movements are given the needles in relation to the bodv-yarn guide It and body-yarn in. Those needles a selected to knit the wales b are isolated from the other needles at the time of their passage by the yarn guide t or the yarn t. The yarn t is so supplied, as by feeding it through an ordinary spring take-up, as to permit it to be drawn off in chords or a diameter of the circle n and to be recovered when the needles n approach the yarn-guide t. The effect of this is to wra the yarn t about the needles n.

T e needles n only are actuated to knit at about that part of their rotation following the yarn guide 6' shown at K which point may be anywhere between the yarn guide it and the am guide in.

If a single nee le n only is employed, the result is that indicated at Fig. 1. If two or more needles n are employed, the construction is of the kind shown in Fig. 2.

The needles a may be isolated at the neighborhood of the yarn guide it by advancing them, as at 10, Fig. 6, far enough to clear their latches, if they are latch needles, whereupon these needles only take the yarn i and these needles onl are retracted at 'w at the knitting point and subseuently advanced to'the normal path for all t is needles shown at N, so that the needles n take the yarn ,6 and knit at the main knitting point K.

\Vhen it is desired to intermit the special structure as shown in Fig. 3, the yarn guide I need not be disturbed, but at the knitting point K the needles n are moved on the normal line N instead of being advanced and retracted.

In case of fabrics like that shown in Fig. 4, the needles n may be advanced, as at no, so as to take the yarn t, and then not be retracted at 10, but be moved thereafter in the normal path N, or remain as elevated at w, said needles making their usual movement at knitting point K. Needles so advanced at w, will have cleared their previous loops, as of the course 15 in Fig. 4, and the new run 7 of the yarn t will also be placed upon them in position to be cast off upon knitting course 16, Fig. 4, with the result illustrated in said figure.

In the case of the fabric of Fig. 5 or the like, knitting is suspended at knitting point 105 K by not advancing the needles n sufficiently far to clear their latches, but nevertheless causing them to take the yarn t. The needles mav or may not under these circumstances be depressed at w, but their pre- 11( vious loops of course 22, Fig. 5, will not then be cast off, the yarn it will remain in their hooks, and said needles will subsequently receive the yarn is for course 23, and both the yarn t and the yarn is will be interknit in the 11. double yarn loops (1.

I do not herein claim the invention common to this application and my application Serial No. 112,591-(Letters Patent No. 1,256,834, granted February 19, 1918)for 12( the genus, of which this disclosure is one species; or common to this application and my application Serial No. 112,592, filed August 1, 1916.

What I claim is:

1. A tubular seamless stocking of fabric having normal courses and wales of a bodyyarn and s liced areas formed of said bodyyarn rein orced by a splicingarn, oer tain wales thereof only having t erein ad- 18 ditional courses of an additional yarn continuous from additional course to additional course and from spliced to unspliced areas.

2. A tubular seamless stocking having; normal courses and wales of a body-yarn, certain wales thereof only having therein additional courses of an additional yarn continuous from additional course to additional course, said certain wales having at intervals normal loops of the body-yarn interknit with the body-yarn, whereby to form an intermittent mock-seam.

3. A knit fabric having therein knit loops of a body-yarn in all its wales and all its course, said fabric having certain adjacent needle-wales in which successive knit loops are of said body-yarn and of said bodyyarn and an additional yarn knit together said additional yarn extending from one 0 said certain needle-wales to another and behind the body-yarn loops in said wales in free floats or runs, to form a longitudinally extending thickened mark imitating a looper-sewed seam.

4. The art of knitting comprising forming a seamless stocking on an endless series of instruments of a body-yarn interknit in a plurality of wales, interknitting with loops of the body-yarn in certain Wales only loops of an additional yarn, knitting a course of body-yarn in all of said wales, and thereafter knitting other loops in said certain wales only of said additional yarn, whereby to form in said certain wales a thickened mock seam in which are loops of said additional yarn intervening between the courses of body-yarn, and runs or floats of the additional arn extending in the direction of the wa es to thicken and render opaqii e the said mock seam.

5. he art of knitting on a closed series of hooked needles seamless fabrics having certain wales only thickened and projected from the body of the fabric comprising forming of a body-yarn at each of the series of needles a course of stitches, passing an additional yarn into the hooks of two or more selected needles only, casting 01f the body-yarn loops at said needles only, whereby to knit loops of the additional yarn at said needles only, thereafter forming on all of the needles a course of loops of the body-yarn only, and thereafter passing said additional yarn behind said selected needles and again into their hooks, said additional yarn being under tension of a spring takeup, and repeating said remaining operations in the same order.

6. The art of knitting on a closed series of hooked needles such as a circular knitting machine, seamless tubular fabrics having certain wales only thickened and projected from the body of the fabric comprising formin of a body-yarn at each of the series of needles a course of stitches, isolating from said series and passing a run of an additional continuous yarn into the hooks of one or more selected needles only, casting ofl the body-yarn loop, at said, isolatedi needle or needles only, whereby to knit a loop or 100 s of the continuous additional yarn at'sai isolated needle or needles only, and thereafter forming on all of the needles a course of loops of the body-yarn, the operation including causing the continuous additional yarn to pass behind said selected needle or needles and into its or their hook or hooks preparatory to repeating the said operations, Whereb to form floats extendin lengthwise of the fabric.

7. T e art of knitting stockings having a mock seam characterized by an intermitted thickened Wale or wales comprising knitting a body-yarn in normal courses and wales on a series of needles, forming of an additional continuous yarn a course of loops in one or more selected wales only b operating the needles of said wales to knlt after laying upon them said additional yarn, thereafter knitting the body-yarn normally in all of the wales, repeatin said operations for a predetermined num er of courses, and thereafter causin two or more successive normal courses tolie formed in all the wales during a relation of said selective needles and additional yarn inoperative to cause the additional yarn to be formed into knit loops.

Signed by me at Boston, Massachusetts, this twenty-ninth day of July, 1916.

ROBERT W. SCOTT. 

